DECONSTRUCTING "THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA": Let's Talk Advertisers

Miranda Priestly: No. No, I just- It's just baffling to me. Why is it so impossible to put together a decent run-through? You people have had hours and hours to prepare. It's just so confusing to me. Where are the advertisers?
Jocelyn: We have some pieces from Banana Republic.
Miranda Priestly: We need more, don't we?

Check out this letter from a reader, which Vogue actually printed but of course made no response to.

I figured out years ago that the only extra you get from a September issue is additional ad pages.  Nothing else.  The September issues are so famous (helped along by the Vogue documentary of the same name) that every year you'll see media reports on what each mag's page count is going to be as they compete against each other.  The number of pages on that cover wasn't really trying to tell readers about all the wonderful fashion trends - it was put there to brag.

(If you are curious what it's like to flip through a 902 page magazine, I can tell you they are so unwieldy that I dropped this year's Harpers Bazaar in the tub while trying to read it during a soak.)

One of the big secrets, though, is that fashion magazines are pay-to-play.  Buy some ads, and you'll mysteriously find yourself featured in editorial.  Since the mags tend to show a lot of "aspirational" luxury items, it's easiest to notice the lower-end products placed amongst them in a sort of one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others way.  If you see something from, say, Banana Republic, Lane Bryant, or Revlon displayed next to Prada, Marc Jacobs, and Creme de la Mer, you can flip through the pages and spot the ad that "bought" the coverage.  In the past, I've even seen a couple of beauty products in editorial that faced (printed on the page opposite) the ad for the exact same product.

Once it's pointed out to you, you really can't unsee it.  It doesn't bother me that much for clothes since most of the time I'm just searching for general ideas, but I used to rely on the mags for beauty recommendations and was repeatedly burned.  Now I'll make a note of a new product if it sounds interesting, but I look elsewhere for the "real" reviews.